Putting money to better work - what would you do!?

topgearfan08

Hi all... I am starting to review my finances below is currently how they stand..

Santander 123 3% - 20k
Santander FRISA 3.1% maturing in May 15 - 45k
Santander FRISA 2.3% maturing April 16 - 15k
Tesco Instant Access Saver 1.4% - 23k
Premium Bonds - 40k
Royal Mail Shares - £950
Fidelity Stocks n Shares isa fund - £550

No debts....

Come april if it is still about, or the best I was thinking of moving the 44k isa to Clyesdale 2% ISA. Im tossing up whether to put the new 15k allowance for april into the same isa, or starting a new stocks and shares isa, but I'm not too sure what I'm doing there. I have only ever had the Fidelity fund with a small amount to toy around with which has made £50 profit in 2 years.

How would you move the money round to maximise return...

My circumstances also if it helps are...
28, living with parents, employed 24k a year income, no considerable outgoing commitments, contribute standard amount to "the peoples pension" My preference would be to not tie the whole amount up for over 2 years incase rates change, or I decide to purchase a property,
(I understand many accounts do offer access with heavy penalties, which is OK, as I doubt I would need the money, but its nice to have the option!) but some of it could be for the much longer term to maximise income.

My attitude to risk is.... A certain proportion I could afford to risk, but the majority I would like to keep very safe, and not risk.

I know the premium bonds are a poor return, mainly some fun... but only winning £25 a month is getting tiresome, and I could do with putting it to better work.

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly received...

colsten

topgearfan08 wrote: »

, contribute standard amount to "the peoples pension"

Can you explain what you mean by that please?

Also, what is your tax rate, and what are your plans for when? Buying property, starting a family, buying a Lamborghini etc etc etc?

xylophone

Can you explain what you mean by that

This
http://thepeoplespension.co.uk/

topgearfan08

colsten wrote: »

Can you explain what you mean by that please?

Also, what is your tax rate, and what are your plans for when? Buying property, starting a family, buying a Lamborghini etc etc etc?

Sorry should have been more clear. When the people's pension came in they set the percentage they take from your salary, quite low to start with, and are set to slowly increase the percentage over the next few years, as far as I am aware and understand anyway.

To be honest no particular plans of starting a family probably for the next 5 years. The same goes for buying a property really. Tax rate is 20% band. I would love a new car, as no doubt would most, but the one I have at the moment is more than adequate, and should last many years to come!!!

inflationbuster

Well I'm going to recommend the usual and suggest if your attitude to risk is medium/high and long term, select stocks from the FTSE100. There are plenty offering yields above 3% and you can re-invest the dividend to buy more shares to compound your return.

I use this to give me an overview of FTSE100 stocks to monitor yields.

http://investing.thisismoney.co.uk/performance/overview/

masonic

This may come down to a question of how much you might reasonably expect to need for a house deposit, because that will determine how much you could potentially invest in risk-based investments (how much you actually invest might be less than this given your comment about risk).

Ditching the premium bonds should feature in your plans whatever.